Instead of moving down to the 400m for a race against Usain Bolt, Kenya’s 800m gold medalist David Rudisha is adding a couple hundred meters for a race at the Ostrava Golden Spike in June. He’ll run the 1000m as a challenge to himself. And as a chance to try something new.
“When doing something new you are not sure,” Rudisha told SuperSport in Doha Thursday. “I’ve never attempted 1000m before. I don’t want to speculate because this is something new. Until I can go there, I don’t know what I can do.”
But Rudisha and his manager say he won’t be trying his hand at the 1500m anytime soon, since he considers himself too heavy to compete.
“Test yourself at slightly longer event,” Rudisha’s manager James Templeton said. “How is my body going to respond? Am I going to be off the world record or, wow, that was really tough and it put me in a world of pain so forget that. It’s kind of a bit into the unknown so that is nice.”
Sydney 1500m champ Noah Ngeny currently holds the 1000m world record at 2:11.96, giving Rudisha a little more than 31 seconds to cover that extra 200 meters if he feels like padding his resume.
And as for the 400m one-off against Bolt: “Most of the people are asking on Facebook and on Twitter about this sometimes,” Rudisha said. “It’s very difficult. It also puts a lot of pressure on us. At some point, it would not be a bad idea if we can do it maybe one time in the future just for fun and charity.”